Food Services of America, B-276860, July 28, 1997

B-276860 Jul 28, 1997 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that solicitation's relevant experience/past performance requirement is a definitive responsibility criterion is denied where the requirement was an evaluation factor. Protest that contracting agency's evaluation of awardee's proposal improperly considered the experience and past performance of the awardee's proposed subcontractors is denied where. There is no basis to conclude that the agency acted unreasonably in giving awardee credit for the combined experience. Contemplated the award of an indefinite quantity contract to the offeror determined to have submitted the conforming offer most advantageous to the government. Technical quality was significantly more important than price. View Decision Matter of: Food Services of America File: B-276860 Date: July 28, 1997 * Redacted Decision DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Food Services of America (FSA) protests the award of a contract to Sunshine Dairy Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No. SPO300-96-R- M068, issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Defense Personnel Support Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the acquisition of full line food distribution services for various delivery sites at five installations in the Spokane, Washington area. The protester contends that the awardee failed to meet a mandatory definitive responsibility criterion of the RFP and that the agency improperly evaluated the awardee's proposal. [1] We deny the protest. The RFP, issued on July 23, 1996, contemplated the award of an indefinite quantity contract to the offeror determined to have submitted the conforming offer most advantageous to the government. The RFP provided that in evaluating offers for award, technical quality was significantly more important than price. The RFP listed, in descending order of importance, the following six technical evaluation factors for award (with all subfactors being of equal importance): distribution/ delivery system/location/site visits (for which the RFP provided five subfactors, including product sourcing); corporate experience (which included two subfactors--past performance/experience and organizational support); quality program; socioeconomic considerations; procurement/pricing plan; and DLA Mentoring Business Agreements (MBA) program (however, since no offeror provided an MBA plan, this factor was not applied in the evaluation for award). The RFP advised offerors that each technical proposal "must demonstrate the offeror's ability to meet the government's requirements as set forth in this solicitation." Regarding the technical evaluation factor for corporate experience, the RFP provided: The Government will assess the offeror's performance record, as a regular dealer/prime vendor, in providing full line food service with similar food dollar/volume as required on this solicitation. This assessment will be applied to any entity performing on this contract, although experience provided that does not directly pertain to the offeror will not receive as much consideration. The RFP's proposal submission instructions were tailored to each of the evaluation criteria listed in the solicitation and, basically mirroring the solicitation terms for evaluation of corporate experience, provided: Offeror must show evidence of experience in providing full line food service as a prime vendor/regular dealer for customers with similar food dollar/volume requirements as those of this solicitation. . . . The offeror must also show that they and their parent corporation, partners, subcontractors, and the like who would be performing on the proposed contract have experience in handling the proposed number of customers upon which submitting a proposal. . . . Experience information provided that does not directly pertain to the commercial entity represented in this proposal will not receive as much consideration. Proposals were received from three offerors--including FSA and Sunshine-- and discussions were conducted. Best and final offers were received and evaluated. Sunshine's proposal offered both Sunshine's substantial vendor/dealer experience (in the dairy product market and as a retail grocer) and that of two proposed subcontractors, SuperValu Inc., a large national grocery provider, and Hathaway Meats Inc., a local meat distributor--both with extensive food service experience in the Spokane area. The proposal explained how the joint experience of the firms would benefit the agency and meet the corporate requirements of the RFP.